


Cat-astrophy Avoided

by caitrionabh



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Because yes, Oops, also an excuse to give kags kitties, and i was a sucker for the idea, and turned into fic, bird fam shennanigans basically, it was just supposed to be a little writing exercise
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-06
Updated: 2015-08-06
Packaged: 2018-04-13 06:33:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,352
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4511586
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/caitrionabh/pseuds/caitrionabh
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Tsukishima had jokingly suggested that if he was going to tutor the King of the Court he should get to see the castle Kageyama hadn't expected it to turn into a full team visit. Then again, this was Karasuno.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Cat-astrophy Avoided

**Author's Note:**

  * Inspired by [Paws for a Second](https://archiveofourown.org/works/2201592) by [LemonNinjaa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/LemonNinjaa/pseuds/LemonNinjaa). 



> so after reading Paws for a Second by LemonNinjaa (which you should check out if you haven't already) i wanted to try and write something with the same premise in my style. after falling in love with it (and being generously granted permission to post it) here's my take on it!

Kageyama woke up, not to an beeping alarm, but to purring one. A living alarm clock that was currently trying to burrow its way under the covers. With a glance at the clock he decided he could indulge for a few minutes and lifted the covers allowing the still purring furball to slide in beside him and curl up next to his chest. Carefully, he wrapped his arm around the cat so he could gently scratch between her ears.

“Morning, Hikari” He said, his lips curling up into a small smile.

Less than a minute later, Tobio felt the corner of the bed sink slightly before hearing a petulant meow from a second cat. He didn’t want to disturb Hikari so he remained still, but then a nose tickled the back his neck and after a pause, Kouki stepped lightly over his head to nose at his face.

“And good morning to you too.”

Kouki’s reply was to yawn in his face, wafting less than pleasant breath into Kageyama’s face.

He wrinkled his nose in distaste. “Okay, ewww.” And reluctantly sitting up, trying to ignore Hikari’s displeased mews, he reached a free hand out to grab his phone. Both cats tried to tempt him into lying back down, but with a final scratch behind Hikari’s ears, he stood and stretched.

He turned and laughed finding both cats mimicking his stretch. He dressed quickly before heading out towards the kitchen.

“Come on then and I’ll get you guys food before I go.”

Hikari and Kouki followed him down the hall, mewing and doing their best to trip him by winding between his legs while he was walking.

10 minutes later he had temporarily diverted the furballs with food and managed to grab something for himself to eat on his way to school. He announced his departure before slipping out the door, careful to shut it behind him. He didn’t want to think about what would happen if one of his cats got out.

Shaking his head, he headed off towards school, squaring his shoulders and feeling the familiar jolt of nervousness masked by half bluffed confidence.

* * *

 

A full day of school sandwiched between two intense practices later and Kageyama wanted nothing more than to go home and curl up with his two fluffy heaters. Not that anyone could tell. From the outside it was business as usual with Kageyama, from his “freak toss” to yelling at Hinata.

And naturally because he was already completely done with today, it couldn’t just be over. No, of course not. But with exams coming up, and his ability to play through training with the team on the line, study was something that was going to happen whether he liked it or not.

Unfortunately that also meant he had to deal with…

“Hey, King, are you and your little servant going to beg for study help again today.” Tsukishima taunted, followed, as usual, by a grinning Yamaguchi.

Speak of the devil. Kageyama gritted his teeth and reluctantly replied, “If you wouldn’t mind.” Behind him, Hinata mumbled a similar response.

“Well if you insist.” Tsukishima continued, clearly enjoying this. “Oh! I forgot, I had an idea for our little study sessions. It might be easier if we were in a more homey environment. Why don’t you show us average people your palace, King?”

Kageyama could feel anger building, and below that an undercurrent of nerves. If Tsukishima found out about his cats then the whole team would know, and while he wasn’t ashamed of the cats themselves, his reason for having them was private. Unfortunately, before he could object to this, Hinata opened his mouth.

“Oh! Then we could see Kageyama’s house! Let’s do it!”

“Shut up, Hinata! You can’t just invite yourself to other people’s houses!” he snapped.

Even worse, by this point everyone had taken note of the conversation.

“Tsukishima might have a point.” Daichi considered. “And it would be good for everyone to spend time studying.”

Suga nodded. “And it might provide a little bit of a better attitude for fostering team spirit.” he said. “Or at least less hostility” He added with a pointed glance at the first years.

“I can’t force you to open your home, Kageyama.” Daichi said. “But I do think it would be a good opportunity.”

The whole team looked at Kageyama expectantly, Hinata and Tanaka practically shaking with excitement, Asahi looking apologetic, and Suga clearly trying to hide a slightly sympathetic smile.

He knew he was defeated, and shoulders slumped he relented. “Fine. But not today, my parent’s will be less than impressed if I show up with the entire team unannounced.”

Daichi smiled. “Fair enough. We’ll plan for Saturday after morning practice and you can let us know if that doesn’t work. Okay?”

“I guess. But there’s one thing…” Kageyama hesitated.

“Yes?” Suga prompted.

“Uh… No one is, um, allergic to cats are they?” He managed eventually.

Surprised, the team responded in the negative.

“Well I guess to be a king one does have to have subjects.” Tsukishima remarked.

Kageyama bristled, but Daichi stepped in before things escalated.

“That’s enough, both of you.” he said. “Now that we know that allergies aren’t a problem we just need confirmation from Kageyama’s parents. I’ll see you tomorrow and we’ll finalize the details. Okay?”

“Okay!” the team chorused.

Kageyama just sighed. This was going to be an exceptionally long week.

* * *

Kageyama’s parents agreed to host the team on Saturday afternoon, hardly bothering to conceal their relief that their son was engaging with his peers outside of practice. 

And so, as the week progressed Kageyama became more and more irritable, until finally at practice on Saturday morning, a mistimed jump serve nearly decapitated Hinata. Suga, who had been keeping an eye on the increasingly high strung setter all week, decided that he needed to intervene. After a quick word with Daichi, he called Kageyama over to the sidelines.

“Since we’re all heading to your place after this, we thought you might want a bit of a head start.” Suga suggested.

Kageyama attempted to protest, but between gentle persuasion and smiling demands Sugawara managed to usher him out of the gym.

When he reached home, Kageyama showered and changed. He then spent the next half an hour wandering in circles through the house, trying to tidy an already clean room and picking up random objects just to set them down in slightly different places. Hikari and Kouki followed him as he paced, trying to catch his attention. When Kouki tried to wind through his legs and nearly tripped him for the third time, he gave up, flopping down onto the couch and stretching out.

“Why did I agree to this?” he groaned, covering his face.

As if in answer, he felt a set of paws land rather heavily on his chest and seconds later, an inquisitive nose tried to burrow under his arm to get to his face.

With a small chuckle he lifted his arm to allow Kouki proper access to his face, which he sniffed carefully before settling in a way that covered almost half of Tobio’s field of vision with ginger fur.

“Thanks a lot.” he said, reaching up to gently scratch the cat between the ears and relaxing slightly for the first time that day.

A few minutes later the peace was broken by a loud knock, followed by the unmistakable sound of Hinata’s voice and Tanaka’s laughter. Kouki leapt off of him and ran across the room to join Hikari where she was perched up on their elevated bed.

“Hiding already.” he said, only half joking. “I can hardly blame you.” he muttered, going to answer the door.

Unsurprisingly, mere seconds after opening the door, Hinata had his shoes off  and was moving through the living room like a barely contained hurricane. Tanaka and Noya followed, not much quieter, and things only got louder as Daichi yelled at them for trying to walk in without taking their shoes off and Asahi and Suga failed to mediate. Tsukishima moved past him silently, Yamaguchi in tow and quietly followed by the rest of the second years, who greeted him quietly before slipping off their shoes and joining the rest of team inside. As Sugawara brought up the rear he paused to pat Kageyama reassuringly on the shoulder.

Taking a deep breath and trying to stay calm Kageyama followed the team into the living room, noticing on the way that Hinata was quiet. Suspiciously quiet. When he turned the corner he could see why. Hinata, along with half the team, was clustered around the cats’ bed, peering in at them and making a variety of coos and what he assumed were supposed to be cat noises. He felt tense and almost angry.

“You know cats generally don’t like being crowded.” he said stiffly.

A few turned and looked slightly guilty, but Tanaka just walked up to him and slung an arm around his shoulder.

“Relax.” he said, laughing and ignoring the looks Suga was sending his way that were begging him to just shut up. “They’re just looking it’s not like we’re hurting them.”

Kageyama shoved Tanaka’s arm off his shoulder, but before he could say anything Daichi interrupted.

“Alright everyone, I know the cats are interesting but we don’t want to bother them and we’re here to study. So let’s back off and start working okay.”

Disappointed, and a few irritated, sounds of agreement were heard as the team moved to get their books out. All except Hinata, who was still standing about a foot from Hikari and Kouki, completely, and unusually, quiet.

“Oi, Hinata.” Daichi called, a warning in his voice.

Kageyama watched as Hinata shook his head and turned away from the cats. “Sorry! I’m getting my stuff now.”

It took a few minutes for everyone to settle but eventually they had, forming smaller groups for each year.

Kageyama was on the edge of the groups, just close enough to hear Tsukishima as he tried to help Hinata. He was still tense and a little angry and this didn’t go unnoticed by the third years, who quietly discussed it while working.

“Maybe this wasn’t the best idea.” Suga said. “At least not so suddenly.”

Daichi glanced over at Kageyama, who looked almost miserable. “Maybe so.” he agreed. “But it was bound to come up at some point.”

“I feel kinda bad for him. I don’t think he’s used to having people around.” Asahi pointed out.

They lapsed into silence for while, the mostly quiet sounds of work filling the room. Sugawara looked across at the younger setter again, noticing that the smaller of the two cats had left the bed and was headed right for Kageyama. He nudged Daichi, nodding toward the cat. The moment the cat entered Kageyama’s field of vision, he noticeably relaxed, his shoulders slumping slightly, and as she curled up into a small black and white ball of fur on his lap, they could see his lips twitch up into an almost smile.

“Well that explains a lot.” Suga murmured. When Daichi and Asahi looked at him questioningly he continued, “Based on his reactions there I’d guess that those cats are a pretty huge source of comfort for him, which makes his rather hostile reaction to us being around them make sense.”

Daichi considered this as he watched Kageyama scratch the cat under the chin, more relaxed than they’d seen him all week. “And I don’t think it would be too far of a stretch to think that those two are about the closest things he’s had to friends for a while now.”

“What’s it’s name?” they heard Hinata ask.

At the question, Kageyama had froze, but Hinata made no move to come closer. He just sat waiting for an answer, unusually patient.

“Her name is Hikari.” he answered eventually. “And his name is Kouki.” he continued with a gesture back towards the barely visible ginger cat up in the bed.

Hinata reached forward, but checked looking up at Kageyama and asking, “Is it okay if I pet her?”

Surprised that he’d bothered to ask, Kageyama just nodded in reply. Hinata grinned, and carefully moved closer to them before reaching out a hand, carefully putting it where Hikari could smell him, not quite touching her. After a moment of sniffing at his fingers, Hikari pushed her head into Hinata’s hand, demanding to be scratched. When Hinata complied, she stood and moved off of Kageyama’s lap so she could wind around Hinata. 

Kageyama watched this exchange, and without them noticing, the rest of the team watched them.

“How long have you had them?” Hinata asked.

Kageyama shifted awkwardly. “I got them in middle school. They were found together and it would have been cruel to separate them.”

Kageyama flinched as he felt something cold touch the back of his arm before realizing it was Kouki, who had finally decided to be sociable. In fact, he was now demanding attention, sitting by Kageyama’s leg and mewing plaintively.

Hinata laughed. “Someone’s demanding. And so’s his cat.”

“What’s that supposed to mean.” Kageyama snapped.

“Nothing.” said Hinata, failing to hide a smile.

“Dumbass.” he muttered.

“Still I guess I can understand why Kouki would be so demanding.”

Kageyama raised his eyebrows.

Hinata grinned. “Well they’re probably jealous now that they have to compete for your friendship with someone as awesome as me!”

Kageyama stared at him. “Friendship?”

“Well yeah I mean we’re all on the same team, of course we’re friends! Luckily for them, I think we’re willing to share. Right, Hikari?” he said, addressing the cat who was now curled up on his lap, purring.

Kageyama looked around the room at each of his teammates, most of whom were already looking at him and smiling. There was a growing feeling that maybe, despite what he’d thought before, this was what being part of a team should feel like. Finally he looked back at Hinata who still had a wide grin on his face and a cat on his lap.

“Yeah.” he said, smiling softly. “I guess you’re right.”

**Author's Note:**

> guess who noticed after finishing it that they'd accidentally given the cats similar color schemes to kags and hina and had them end up in the lap of the person they didn't look like oops


End file.
